Innovation of Disaster Social Work in the Perspective of Environmental Justice

Social work is a profession closely related to the environment, so environmental justice should become an important topic of social work studies. Social workers need to integrate environmental justice into the whole-life service process. In terms of ″nature and society″, the natural environment justice and social environmental justice are inseparable. Social workers need not only to be critical of the over-exploitation of the natural environment and the punitive institutional arrangements for the disadvantaged groups but also to be aware of the existing environmental inequality. As far as ″justice and education″ is concerned, in order to integrate the concept of environmental justice into social work services, it is necessary to cultivate students′ values and sense of mission to practice professional justice. In terms of ″justice and reconstruction″, social workers advocate that ″better reconstruction″ cannot be used as an excuse for consuming natural resources, and on the other hand, they also need to transform their service targets from ″disaster-affected groups″ to ″vulnerable groups″. As far as ″gender and justice″ is concerned, social workers should regard gender as a key indicator of disaster services and pay attention to women especially. As far as ″environment and human″ is concerned, social workers must reconsider the professional concept of ″people in the environment″, which has become a complex and critical emerging field in disaster services. Although disasters will further exacerbate environmental injustice, at the same time it also provides unprecedented opportunities for change. Social workers need to construct new theories and new practical models of life-cycle disaster service from the perspective of environmental justice and fundamentally get rid of the traditional neglect of environmental justice issues.